BHOPAL TRAGEDY part IV120,000 survivors are in desperate need of medical attentionThe Asian Age website http://www.asianage.com

San Francisco, May 29: "Already the victims have learnt that there
is no justice in the world. If, after reading their story, we turn the page, we will
demonstrate that there is no humanity either," writes director Mahesh Mathai in a
diary he kept while on the sets of the feature film Bhopal Express, a human drama set
against the gas tragedy in Bhopal.

Mathai's film, starring a cast that includes Naseeruddin Shah and Zeenat
Aman, examines the irresponsible methods of large corporations and the effects of their
actions on common people. Fifteen years after the Union Carbide plant spewed out tonnes of
toxic methyl isocyanate which killed thousands of people in Bhopal, the medical conditions
in the city have gone from bad to worse.

Satinath Sarangi, founder of the Bhopal Group for Information and
Action, told The Asian Age in an interview from Bhopal that today over 120,000 survivors
are in desperate need of medical attention.

"In addition to the long-term complications of the diseases caused
by exposure in 1984 people today suffer from tuberculosis and other infectious diseases
caused to their immune systems. Also lung, oesophagus and other cancers are rising,"
Mr Sarangi said, adding: "Young women exposed to the toxic gases in infancy on in
their mother's womb suffer menstrual irregularities. Parents find it difficult getting
their daughters married."

People in the communities living around the factory are exposed to a
range of carcinogenic and other toxic chemicals in their drinking water. In a recent study
Greenpeace International called the factory site one of the "global toxic
hotspots." In a recent report, titled The Bhopal Legacy, Greenpeace points out that
toxic chemicals such as mercury and hazardous organochlorines still extensively
contaminate the factory site. Some of the organochlorines found in groundwater supplying
the neighbouring communities of gas victims are known to have been used at the plant
during routine operations.

The levels of toxic mercury found in a sample taken in conjuction with
local Bhopal support groups in May 1999 from a location within the factory, were between
20,000 and six million times higher than background levels, which would be expected, in
uncontanimated soils.

Greenpeace called for Union Carbide to clean up the toxic legacy and
hazardous wastes left at the site when the plant was closed down 15 years ago on December
3, 1984 after a poisonous gas leak from the pesticides factory killed an estimated 16,000
people and injured as many as 500,000.

"Union Carbide must go back to the factory site and clean it up.
There are 200 wells in its vicinity in which the water has been contaminated. But families
are forced to use these wells due to a shortage of water. Rain also results in
contamination of the water table," said Corey Conn, the US-based coordinator of the
International Alliance for Justice in Bhopal. Mr Conn said Union Carbide was responsible
for not informing the doctors working in Bhopal what line of treatment needed to be
followed.

"It is generally assumed that in addition to methyl isocyanate,
hydrogen cyanide was also released and the intense heat brought about a synthesis of new
harmful products. In short what was formed that night was a witch's brew," he said,
adding that Union Carbide kept the contents of this "witch's brew" from health
experts.

"If Union Carbide would reveal the nature of the products that were
formed on that fateful night doctors may be able to come up with a treatment," he
said.

Mr Sarangi agreed. "Protocols for medical treatment of the victims
are still not available. A big reason is that Union Carbide continues to withold medical
information as trade secrets. Since standardised protocols are not available there is much
abuse of medicaton by the doctors," he said.

Steroids, antibiotics and psychotropic drugs are indiscriminately
prescribed thus compounding the injuries caused by the disaster. Clinics have been set up
in Bhopal, but they have their hands full. They are inundated with patients complaining of
congenital health problems. "This is a legacy which continues to inflict harm,"
said Mr Conn.

Activists are concerned the Indian government, in its enthusiasm to
attract foreign investment, may compromise on some vital safety standards.

"Over 50 US corporate executives who accompanied President Clinton
during his India visit have put pressure on the Indian government to bring down tariffs on
chemicals, loosen regulatory mechanisms and not hold parent companies responsible in the
event of a disater," said Mr Sarangi.

"And this is happening openly, it is there on the website of the
US-India Business Council - a consortium of US-based corporations (including chemical
corporations) keen on setting up factories in India," he added.

In India, in the last several years, the special government committee
overseeing hazardous technologies has been wound up, zoning laws for locating hazardous
facilities have been drastically relaxed and the chemical industry is growing at five
times the world average.

"As part of globalisation more slow and silent Bhopals are in the
making and who knows maybe another disaster like Bhopal," cautioned Mr Sarangi.

Public pressure and the continuous agitation of the survivors have
played a big role in policing the government. So far the Indian government has not made
any declaration about the balance of the compensation fund which is likely to be around Rs
1,000 crores.

"Legally this amount belongs to the claimants and we are demanding
that this be used to pay additional sums of compensation to the claimants as well as for
their long-term medical care and rehabilitation," said Mr Sarangi.

He observed that the hopes of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy had
been kept alive by the actions of the hundreds of mostly women survivors who still gather
every week in two public parks in the city, demanding justice and a better deal for the
survivors.

Nishant Jain, a research associate at the University of Michigan and
member of the student organisation - Association for India's Development - summed up the
situation best when he said: "Everyone has a sense of closure when it comes to
Bhopal. No one wants to care anymore."